More African countries have pledged to go ahead with the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project with the signing of various agreements.
Four memoranda of understanding were signed on Friday by the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd. (NNPC), the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines of Morocco, the National Hydrocarbons Co. of Benin, the National Petroleum Operations Company of Ivory Coast, the National Petroleum of Guinea. co. and National Oil Co. of Liberia’s state-owned NNPC, they said in a press release.
The pipeline would run from Nigeria to Morocco via Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania.
“These memoranda of understanding, similar to those signed with ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] on September 15, 2022, Mauritania and Senegal on October 15, 2022, and Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone and Ghana on December 5, 2022, reaffirm the commitment of the parties to this strategic project,” NNPC said .
“Once completed, the project will improve the monetization of the natural gas resources of the affected African countries and also provide a new alternative export route to Europe.”
The project started in September 2022 with the signing of an MOU merging the ECOWAS West African Pipeline Extension Project and a planned pipeline between Nigeria and Morocco. “The similarities between the two projects soon became apparent and hence the need for synergy to pool efforts to achieve a single pipeline project,” ECOWAS said in a separate statement at Friday’s signing.
“It is in this context that the first steering committee of the Single Gas Pipeline Project was organized to take stock of the current status of the project, to discuss the general principles of the Treaty and the Host Country Agreement, as well as other issues key such as the environment and the survey studies to be carried out,” he said.
“This major infrastructure project will contribute to accelerating access to energy for all, improving the living conditions of the populations, integrating the economies of the sub-region and mitigating desertification,” NNPC added. “It will achieve these goals through sustainable and reliable gas supply that aligns with the continent’s new environmental commitments, while providing Africa with a new economic, political and strategic dimension.”
The Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Mele Kyari, commented: “As a commercial company, NNPC Ltd. sees this project as an opportunity to monetize Nigeria’s abundant hydrocarbon resources, expanding access to energy to support the economic growth, industrialization and job creation across the African continent and beyond.”
Fossil fuel is a key component of Nigeria’s economy. Oil and natural gas accounted for 6.21 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in the first quarter, making the sector the fourth largest component of the economy behind crop production, trade and telecommunications and information services, the National Statistics Office reported on 24 May.
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